End of July
Fri Jul 30th 2010
Well a few weeks has passed since I have last updated you on the garden, so I figure it was time I got off my ass and posted something. Fortunately, I have mostly good news to report for a change. There has not been any frost in the past few weeks, as a matter of fact it has been very hot and surprisingly wet. Its been pretty humid (well for here at least) and the past week we have had almost daily storms. Of course they are quick ones, just enough to water the garden and make the mountain bike trails phenomenally fun to ride.

Overall the garden looks great. The new plants that I put in are starting to take off. There are little green tomatoes on a few of my tomato plants and the peppers. Man they are sprouting up all over the place. I have sweet bananas growing, the big marconis are sprouting, even the bell peppers are looking good.

The big surprise has been what is going on in box 6 (my tender green beans...thats right I said tender). I thought that they were lost forever. They got creamed in 2 frosts, but amazingly they are making a comeback. As a matter of fact they seem like they are trying to edge in on the green onions. I may have an old fashioned turf war on my hands. Even the cucumbers are starting to flower, well one of them is. I am hoping the other one sees it and says "oh yeah, cucumbers" and starts sprouting big yellow flowers.

The seeds I planted are taking hold. I pulled out 2 huge heads of lettuce and I have a third about to get plucked. I have also put in a second round of lettuce and spinach and its going fairly good. I have half a row of lettuce and one full row of spinach. I am gonna get out there this weekend and plant some more of each. I am trying to keep the good times rolling by staggering my lettuce and spinach plantings. What I need to do is figure out exactly how long it is from plant to harvest, it doesnt seem very long.

Speaking of round 2 I have also put in a second batch of radishes. I got some of that seed tape and buried it in the ground. Supposedly you dont have to worry about thinning out. I figured what the hey, since my radish thinning is not the greatest. I put in 3 rows and by golly, I have 3 rows of radishes growing. Very impressed with the seed tape so far. I will know more when they are full grown, they still seem kind of close to me, but the tape knows...the tape knows.

I wish I could say that everything was roses, but in fact it is not. I think the strawberry plants are on strike. They seem to have completely stopped growing fruit. At first I thought it was the birds, but now I am thinking that maybe it is some sort of labor dispute (will know more soon). Also the carrots grew in pretty sparsely, luckily there are some, but not the 3 rows that I had hoped for. Luckily I have a secret stash that I planted at the beginning of the season that is looking great. So thats all I got, mostly happy plants, and to be honest a happy gardner. I would say that if I was grading my garden, I would give myself a solid B.
#$%@! Garden 2.2
Sun Jul 11th 2010
Ok this is getting ridiculous, damn frost got to the garden again. Its like mother nature has it in for me. I came home from 4th of July weekend and triumphantly walked into the back yard to see my glorious garden. Unfortunately we had a frost while I was away and it, once again, wrecked a bunch of my plants. I was crushed. I cursed. I screamed. I even threw some shit. For a minute, things were looking really bleak, I even contemplated giving up. Some dark times.

I just couldnt, quit. So I did what I do best, dust myself off. I went down to Salt Lake and bought a whole bunch of new plants. I figured that with the better climate down there, the plants at the store would be bigger, stronger, and healthier then what they have up here in the frost filled mountains. Plus the tomato plants in Robin's garden (which is in Salt Lake) look like Jack's Beanstalk. So Friday after work, I headed over to the Lowes by my office to check out their garden section. I was blown away, I mean really floored. The plants were amazing!! It was like I had gone to some sort of nursery nirvana.

I ended up buying a few tomato plants, some more peppers and a cucumber plant to replace the ones that were lost to the frost (yes the frost again). It makes me so mad to just say that word...F..R..O...S...T. But I wont give up!! I want to grow tomatoes in Park City so bad that it hurts. I lay in bed at night and dream of pushing my vegetable cart up historic Main Street, tomatoes the size of softballs, peppers the size of pumpkins (I think you get the point). With a resounding warmth in my heart I planted the new plants. I looked down at my garden but instead of feeling happiness, I instead still felt dread. What was going on you ask? All the new plants made me do is to realize how really shitty my existing plants were. It was like driving a Rolls Royce through downtown Faluja. Wreckage everywhere, hopelessness, the burned out shell of what once was.

So I did what any garden lunatic would do, and I went BACK down to Salt Lake and replaced a bunch more plants. I dismantled my Pepper Medley in box 14 and created a NEWER Pepper Medley (ha ha ha...try and stop me). I got something called a Giant Marconi, seriously thats the name Giant Marconi. I got 2 cause I laughed so hard. I also put in the second cucumber plant. I had to, I hadn't seen anything so badly frost bitten since Dr. Beck Weathers came off of Everest.

At least not everything went bad, It appears that my seeds have finally sprouted. Its like they knew to wait for the frost to be over. All this time I thought the birds were eating my seeds. Well I guess I was wrong, because I am seeing sprouts coming up in the carrots box, some in the lettuce, and I think my sole spinach plant may finally get some friends. Even the green onions are sprouting up. I guess I had sowed the original ones a bit too deep. Kind of like shipping a birthday card in a suitcase. Unfortunately (or fortunately) in the meantime I had built a scarecrow out of PVC, some old clothes and oddly enough a spider man mask. Damn thing scares me, every time I come around that corner off the deck and I see it I freaking jump. Hey it would scare you too, with its low hanging shorts and spidey mask. Looksl ike some sort of hoodlum back there. And its not just me, both Harold and Bruce told me that the spidey crow (patent pending) keeps scaring them too. Doesnt seem to bother the birds though, as I have cleared 2 nests so far.

So what are the birds doing in my garden? I have put some serious detective work in on this one and have come up with a doozey of a theory. I mean even I am having a hard time with it, but it all checks out. There appears to be a large selection of worms in my garden. I found this out this weekend while I was putting the new plants in. As you all know, birds are notorious worm eaters. Think of the cartoons. I know what you are saying: "Hamertek aren't fish also big worm eaters?". Yes they are, but unless they are coming in underneath my garden, there is no way for them to get in and out without leaving at least a few fin marks . Anyway I think that the birds are coming for the worms. So whats the big deal? Well, since the birds have come, I also have not been picking any strawberries out of the garden. Now ordinarily slow strawberry production would not be cause for alarm, but upon inspection it looks as though my strawberries are in fact being STOLEN!! There are no little berries growing anywhere. There used to be some but now there are none. Where did they go? Also some of their little branches have been bitten off (filthy flying creatures). I smell foul play. I think that they come in the front door for a worm and out the back for one of my damn strawberries. Think about it, if you were eating worms wouldn't you want a nice yummy strawberry for desert. I mean its not like a bird can get its beak on some colgate and trust me worms taste nasty (won a $5 bet in 1993 thank you). So after some exhaustive research (nearly 3 google searches) I decided to hang some old CDs around the garden. Seriously the internet sucks. They are supposed to scare off the birds. Something about prisms of light everywhere and random movement (Damnit Jim, I am a gardner not a scientist). Who knows we will see, but if I see those birds using my garden as a discotheque I am going out there with my AR-15.

Well its been a rough couple of weeks, but I feel a bit better about things. I have a ton of new plants, my seeds are growing nice, and I now have a 2 pronged bird defense going. What could be better. I know that the last time I gave myself a C+, I think that this time I will give myself a solid B. I have pulled a few pieces of lettuce and spinach and most of my radishes have been harvested.
One Month In
Mon Jun 28th 2010
By my not so scientific calculations I would say that I am a month in on this years garden. Like last year, this year has had a tough start. I was looking at the garden today and was thinking that it was starting to shape up. My new tomato plants are taking hold. The peppers are starting to flower and my radishes are getting big. The beans are growing and there is even a couple of lettuce leaves poking up.

The down side is that it seems that my seed planting didnt go so well. I dont know if some sneaky son of a gun stole them out of the ground, or if somehow I killed them but there is very little showing. I am not sure what is growing in the spinach box, I am fairly certain its not spinach though. I thought maybe it was, but after referring to the picture on the seed pouch, I am certain it is not spinach. I do have a blade of grass growing in the chives section, I sometimes stare admiringly at it, lying to myself that one day it will be a brilliant farm of chives. I think my only hope is to do a replant.

So I guess if I was grading the garden I would put it at a solid C+. If I had grades like that in high school, I could have gone to a real college, not one that was located in a strip mall. Once I fix my problem with the seeds then perhaps I will get to the B range. Only time will tell.
Garden 2.1
Sun Jun 20th 2010
Out of the ashes (well frozen ashes) Hamertek Gardening would like to announce the release of Garden 2.1. I had to pull out all of my tomato plants and put new ones in. It broke my heart but my hands were tied. Frost had crept its icey cold paw of death into my garden once again and has claimed the lives of my tomato plants. Luckly I had time to replant. There were plenty of long faced gardeners at the Home Depot replacing frost killed plants of their own.

My goal was to just replace what was killed, but I screwed up and couldn't tell apart my pepper plants. So now I either have 2 sweet banana pepper plants or 1 Jalapeno and 1 sweet banana. I just cant figure out which is which. That realization led to a lot of obscene language, rake throwing and other mature displays of behavior. After disbursing my collection of garden tools all over my yard, I realized that this was actually pretty neat (and funny). I have no idea what this plant is till it grows something. It is one of the peppers in box 10.

The one benefit that has come out of this tragedy is that I have been able to do some rearranging. I had put tomato plants across the front of the garden. This was actually a poor design since I had to squeeze between the tomato cages to get into the garden. This sucked. I have been able to move stuff around so that there is now a way into the garden. Pretty clever aint I. I also got a whole bunch of peppers. I went a bit overboard, but thats what I do. Because I loved them so much, I planted 2 more Anaheim Peppers.

Besides the replant, I also thinned out my radishes and beans. Last year I went Au Natural, in my garden that is, and just let stuff grow. That was a mistake. This year, I will thin according to directions. I hate following directions, but in this one rare instance they seem to be correct. Must be a fluke. Anyway I pulled out a bunch of radishes. This should help them grow to be the size of grape fruits, well maybe softballs is more realistic. The beans werent so bad (must have done a better job of planting the seeds) and I only had to pull out a few of them. Look for some pictures soon of the thinned out plants.
Not Again!!
Fri Jun 18th 2010
$#!%@ Lost a bunch of plants in the garden today. Hit the trifecta last night. Wind, Cold and Hail. It was almost biblical (I donned my fig leaf just in case). Well my greenhouse stood as much of a chance as the SS Minnow. I think I lost all of my tomato plants, a few peppers and maybe my cucumber plant. #$!@$%.

At first I was pretty bummed, but then I realized its still early I can replant. Either way I need to make some improvements on my greenhouse design. I will have to do some 3-D modeling on my computer and come up with a better design.

In the meantime, its actually supposed to get warm and hopefully I can stop worrying about freezing temperatures. Of course the weather has been much different this year. It has not been nearly as wet, but it is much colder. The cold weather forced me to delay planting. It will be interesting to see how this effects things.
Garden 2.0
Tue Jun 1st 2010
Well...here I go again.

After last years largely unsuccessful garden ,I am once again planting a garden. For those of you who cant remember that far back let me recap. The garden was my first since coming to Park City. It was a tough season, I fought tomato blight, I fought a gofer (had to go Bill Murray on his ass) and I fought my own ignorance on gardening and I was winning. Things were looking great, I was getting really excited. I had even went out and bought a tomato corer, looking back on it I know laugh at my arrogance. I went to bed one chilly August night and woke up to FROST!! Everywhere...Frost. The gardeners worst enemy. I was caught completely unaware. All my hard work...down the drain. Tomato plants...dead. Peppers....dead. Squash....dead. Well you get the point. As one to not be deterred by past mistakes, I swore that I would never defeated.

So when spring finally broke I grabbed my rakes and hoes and started getting the garden in shape. It was a late winter, and I got my plants in the ground a few weeks later then last year, but I am not concerned. I feel good about this year. I even rotated some of my crops (why not...if your gonna do it...DO IT.)

I will be chronicling my attempt to once again go up and against mother nature and try and grow some tomatoes in my high altitude garden in Park City. At a smidgen under 7000 feet thats no small feat, but I have my greenhouse, a handful of seeds and a dream. So lets see how it goes. I have learned some lessons, have had time to think about what I am doing and I feel confident that this year I will have a good harvest. The tomatoes are in the ground, the seeds sown so now it is just a matter of waiting and seeing. Thanks for taking an interest in this. Hopefully you will enjoy this as much as I do. So lets go on a journey together.